Richard E. Wend (1921-2009)
By Roger KolmanDick Wend passed away Sunday, October 25, 2009, after a battle with lymphoma. For anyone who knew him a deep void now exists within. He will be sorely missed.Dick was a member of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) for six decades and was a recipient of the Director's Awards for his lifetime contributions.He was an avid observer of the planet Jupiter and s

New Slacker Astronomy Episode
This week Doug, Michael and I have a lot fun talking about CCDs and how they work, we answer questions from the reader mail bag about cosmology and the expansion of the universe, and Michael introduces the new Slacker Blogger, Ben Huset. There are a lot of laughs in this one, and we wax a little philosophical here and there. Tune in to the Slacker Astronomy Podcast a

Carnival of Space Quasquicentennial Edition
...that means it is the 125th Carnival of Space; a collection of the best space-related blog posts from the past week.This week we have entries from:Next Big Future

Messenger Pictures from Mercury
For those astronomy and space enthusiasts that also love LOLCats, here is the largest paw print known to man, from the surface of the planet Mercury. Photo credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied PhysicsLaboratory/Carnegie Institute of Washington

Uptick in Orionid Meteors This Year?
According to M. Sato and J. I. Watanabe (2007, PASJ 59, L21) the strong Orionid meteor activity of 2006-2008 may be repeated this year. The increased activity present in 2006-2008 is apparently due to dust trails from comet 1P/Halley, formed by meteroids ejected 1400BC and 11BC.  The orbits of this solar system debris are affected by the 1:5 and 1:8 mean-motion resonances with the planet Jupiter. this resonance effect essentially herds the debris in